Chapter Text
The last bits of Time Lord energy faded away. Sylvia Noble watched, her mind still racing at the night’s events. It didn’t feel real. The aliens, the car chase, the gun fire (laser fire?) and the large spaceship towering over her.
Her daughter witnessing all of it and still breathing.
She watched as Donna embraced Rose and Shaun rubbed Donna’s back. Around them, UNIT sprang into action. Soldiers ran about, orders were shouted. The scientist who’d saved them, Shirley, was it?, was speaking with the Doctor.
Sylvia took a breath. The Doctor. Oh how she’d hated that man. Her father had tried to soften the edges, to make her see the Doctor’s side, but no. Sylvia Noble would never forgive the Doctor for irreversibly hurting her daughter.
But, apparently not so irreversible after all. Confused, Sylvia took a breath and glanced around, feeling out of place.. She was useless there, and she ached for a cup of tea. She eyed the Meep’s discarded throne, wondering if she would be permitted to take a rest.
“Hey.”
Startled, Sylvia looked up to see Donna before her. Donna, her brave, beautiful, perfectly imperfect daughter. She stood taller than she had in years, a confidence that had been wiped away along with all her memories. It almost took Sylvia’s breath away, to see that Donna once again.
She inhaled. “Hello.”
“Long night, eh?” Donna asked, her smile hesitant.
“I could use a cup of tea,” Sylvia confessed.
“I could use a shot of Dad’s bourbon,” Donna said, and they shared a grin. But Donna’s expression changed. “Fifteen years.” Her voice was barely above a whisper.
Sylvia’s throat tightened. They were going to do this now? They were never good at heart-to-hearts; they communicated best through jabs and shouting. And there, in the middle of a factory surrounded by soldiers, was not the place for a conversation.
And yet Sylvia didn’t want to waste a moment. She nodded.
Donna reached up to place her hand on her mother’s shoulder, but stopped herself. “I can’t imagine what that must have been like for you. And Gramps,” she said and then held her mother’s gaze. “But then Gramps went into the nursing home…”
Sylvia inhaled. “Well, the Doctor told us to keep you safe.” She jerked her head to where the Time Lord once was, not noticing he’d walked away. “And I won’t deny it wasn’t easy.” She squinted at Donna, searching her daughter’s face for any signs of trouble.
Donna met her gaze, reading her mind. “It’s all gone.”
Sylvia remained still.
“I promise,” Donna insisted. “You don’t have to worry any longer.”
A weight that had been pressing on Sylvia Noble for fifteen finally started to lessen.
Donna released a breathy laugh and looked over Sylvia’s shoulder, random, surreal events of the past decade and a half-running through her mind. “There was a lot, wasn’t there? What did you tell me about the Cybermen in London…what was that ten years ago?”
Sylvia’s eyes flickered as she remembered. “Modern Art display.”
“That was the Master… or rather Missy,” Donna said, her voice trancelike as the DoctorDonna’s memories sorted themselves into her mind. She squinted and shook her head. “Or all those little boxes?”
“Tesco marketing.”
Donna snorted a laugh. “Well done for creativity.” But then she frowned, remembering her mother and grandfather madly scrambling about, gathering those strange alien cubes before Donna could look at one. She and Shaun had shrugged it off.
Sylvia clicked her tongue; coming up with those stories had not been easy. None of it had been.
Watching her mother’s expression, Donna offered a small smile. “Fifteen years,” she repeated. “You must have been…”
“Terrified,” Sylvia blurted. “I was terrified. And angry. Furious at… at him… ”
Donna remained silent. Sylvia had years worth of frustrations to release.
“He just dumped you on our doorstep, damaged and fragile.”
“Fragile?”
“Yes! One little spark of anything alien, and you could die. How do you handle something like that? To always be on guard for years, to comb through all the newspapers, to quickly turn off the telly, to stir conversations away from anything that might trigger… It was exhausting.”
Donna nodded. “But you did it.”
“Of course I did!” Sylvia snapped. “You’re my daughter and I would do anything -“ But she stopped, her throat too tight. How could she make Donna understand?
But Donna did. She reached up, and this time she didn’t hold back. She wrapped her arms around her mother, an embrace they’d always held back from. Even if they’d hugged or shared a smile, there was always something between them. Now Donna knew what it was, and her heart ached for the constant fear her mother had to go through. The terror hovering over their home every single day for fifteen years. She’d have words with the Doctor about that. She’d have words with him about a lot of things. But for the moment, she wanted to let Sylvia know how touched and overwhelmed she was at how fiercely her mother had fought for her.
She pulled back. “All those years, I thought I was a disappointment,” she said softly. “And then after… after the meta crisis, I thought I was a burden.”
Sylvia shook her head, but Donna pressed on. “But with Rose, I get it. I get how you can feel about your child. The lengths you’d go to to protect them.”
“You’d burn the world down,” Sylvia finished and took Donna’s hands. “I hated myself for… for deceiving you. And being hard on you. But it was the only way I knew…He didn’t leave instructions when he left, you know.”
“Yeah, he’s more of an idea guy.” Donna looked around. “And you never told Shaun?”
“What could I say? There’s no explanation for what happened!” How could Sylvia tell Shaun his future bride had a potential bomb inside her brain and anything out of the ordinary could cause it to explode?
Donna smiled fondly. “He goes along with the punches pretty well.”
Sylvia laughed. “He’s perfect for you.”
“Yeah…” Donna sighed and squeezed her mother’s hands, wanting to hug her again, but knew it might be too much too soon. So she just smiled. “But thanks, Mum. I mean it. I don’t even think Thanks is a big enough word. I owe you my life.”
Rolling her eyes, Syvlia sighed. “Don’t be dramatic.”
“All right… but I hope you sleep well for the first time in fifteen years.”
Sylvia’s throat tightened again, and for a moment she could only nod. “Seeing you happy and more like my Donna again… I couldn’t be happier.”
Mother and daughter stood quietly for a moment, letting the peace soak over them. They had a lot of catching up to do and the adrenalin was starting to wane, leaving Sylvia exhausted. Donna put a supportive arm around her mother’s shoulder and turned to see her family and the Doctor facing her.
She smiled. “Let’s get out of here.”